Saturday Morning Confusion. #12

Let's jump right into the deep end of the pool kids and start with our "Asshole of the Week!"

The trophy and a loud fart go to Dr. Phil McGraw for butting into the Britney Spears thing and trying to make hay out of it for his own personal gain!

"Was it helpful to the situation? Regrettably, no. It was not, and I have to acknowledge that and I do," the talk show host told his audience Thursday during taping of a Dr. Phil episode that will run Monday.

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Speaking of Britney, why not make her our "Loser of the Day!" (This isn't the first... or last time, kids!)

Britney's movie career is kaput - for now anyway.

Filmmaker Tommy Parker told MTV News earlier this month he was in talks with Spears' camp to sign her on to his low-budget thriller Memoirs of a Medicated Child.

But a rep for the film is now telling the "Perspective" research department; "Even with an accepted $3 million offer on the table and negotiations being finalized, producers decided to can Brit.”

Actor Peter Falk's niece Samantha Falk will replace Spears in the film as the sympathetic girlfriend of a troubled young man.

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You remember a few weeks ago when I talked about making a list of things to do before I die, and the list included talking to Rodney Dangerfield about Lenny Bruce but then HE went and died before I could do it.

Well bunky, let me tell you something. This idea caught on so much that Hollywood went and made a movie about it.

Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star in The Bucket List, a buddy flick in which they leap from planes, drive race cars, eat caviar, motorcycle on the Great Wall of China, and trot by other wonders of the world before they "kick the bucket."

With this in mind,when USA TODAY asked readers about their lists, many had destinations, accomplishments and relationships in mind.

Genny Scott, 49, who works at the county jail in Goldendale, Wash., most wants to "learn to scuba dive and see the Great Barrier Reef in person. I've never been anywhere that the ocean is warm enough to stick your toes in."

She also wants to research her family roots, swim with dolphins and become a nature biologist. One item she's already started: working on a novel, she says. "So that's not totally unattainable."

Wayne Palmer's list is a mix of "fantasies, reality (and) duty."

Like the film buddies, Palmer, 46, an engineering technician in West Allis, Wis., wants to sky-dive. "I just have to lose a few pounds first."

His travel list highlights the last five U.S. states he hasn't visited (Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Vermont) and the Holy Land, to see the sunrise from a mountaintop and to look up an old pal.

Interior designer Lisa Echard, 43, of Taylorsville, N.C., has already checked off items, including riding in a hot-air balloon, "which actually landed, accidentally, in a lake," seeing the Grand Canyon, and accompanying her husband on his life-list goal of visiting Australia.

Still on the list: "Make myself a handmade quilt; see Paris and about 20 other places outside the U.S.; live in the Pacific Northwest, even for just a year to try somewhere different; write a book."

Possibly most important, Echard says: "Find a meaningful way to enrich other people's lives — outside of my own family."

The Rev. Kerry Shook and his wife, Chris, are leading 500 churches nationwide in a program that challenges them to live the next 30 days as if they were their last.

They did the challenge at their church, Fellowship of The Woodlands, in a Houston suburb. Their book on the challenge, One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life, is due in stores Feb. 5. It addresses "the big difference between a full life and a fulfilling life," he says.

In their pilot program, people took the honeymoon they'd forgone for 25 years, lost weight, quit smoking and clocked adventures, but most took it to a higher plane, including a woman who forgave the man who killed her son.

"We are all encouraged to leave a small ecological footprint and a huge spiritual footprint," Kerry Shook says.

The Shooks have four teenagers, and the couple's own list included more time and deeper conversations together. "It's the relational shortcomings that most haunt people in life," he adds.

The Bucket List movie ultimately sends its two wanderers to the people, not the places, who matter.

"Find the joy in your life," Freeman tells Nicholson before the credits roll.

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Here is our "Winner of the day!" He's an actor, a producer, a director, a writer.

And now George Clooney has been named an official U.N. "messenger of peace" meaning he'll promote the organization's peace-keeping efforts.

Clooney, who is currently in Sudan, will receive his designation on Jan. 31 at U.N. headquarters.

He's the ninth U.N. messenger -- people chosen from the fields of art, music, literature and sports who have agreed to help focus attention on the United Nations' work.


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A new "Star Trek" movie is coming out in December. Here is a sneak peek at the new Enterprise!



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And finally for today, put your hands over your ass kids, because that is exactly where you're going to get it from "Big Brother" according to Tech-Dirt magazine.

The U.S. constantly brags about being #1 in everything, when in reality they are being left in the dust and the only thing they lead in is trampling peoples rights and liberties!

Now, there are those who claim the government already has the ability to monitor all internet communications, but it looks like it's about to become official.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told a reporter from The New Yorker that he's prepared a "cyber security policy" that would grant the federal government the right to monitor all Internet communications.

The report also notes that President Bush hasn't yet announced this policy. The reporter from the New Yorker states: "it may be the only way to protect transportation, security, and other critical systems that rely on the Internet."

That is a bizarre statement that seems totally unsupportable. It almost goes without saying, but the old (supposedly) Ben Franklin quote applies: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

It's also not clear from this report whether this is just a policy or an actual system for monitoring Internet content -- as that makes quite a big difference.

Either way, expect to see more people become a lot more interested in encrypting their communications soon.

Your "Hush, Hush and on the Q.T." scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com